Diabetes research in China: making progress

With the sharp increase in the prevalence of diabetes in recent decades, China has become the country with the largest number of people with diabetes. 1 International Diabetes FederationIDF Diabetes Atlas. 7th edn. International Diabetes Federation, Brussels2015 Google Scholar Due to the heavy burden of the disease, an increasing number of researchers in China have started to focus on diabetes, from both a basic research and a clinical perspective. Based on a search of Web of Science, the number of published papers on diabetes with lead authors based in China has seen a massive increase, from just 97 papers in 2000 to 3480 papers in 2015. Moreover, the research areas covered within this category have also gradually diversified. In 2000, most research focused on the clinical features of the disease, including metabolism, general medical aspects, and cardiovascular disease. However, by 2015, research ranged from traditional clinical endocrinology and metabolism to the basic science of experimental medicine, biochemistry, and molecular biology, and to cutting-edge field research, multi-omics, and precision medicine.